Audio presentation of conversation threads

ABSTRACT

In an example, a computing system receives an instruction to initiate audio presentation of electronic communications for a recipient. Responsive to the instruction, the computing system audibly outputs each unreviewed electronic communication in a most-recent conversation thread including a most-recent set of unreviewed, reply-linked electronic communications for the recipient. Each unreviewed electronic communication in the most-recent conversation thread may be audibly output in a chronological-sequential order beginning with an oldest unreviewed electronic communication and continuing to a most-recent unreviewed electronic communication. Responsive to completing audible output of the most-recent unreviewed electronic communication from a conversation thread, the computing device audibly outputs each unreviewed electronic communication in a next-most-recent conversation thread including a next-most-recent set of unreviewed, reply-linked electronic communications for the recipient. Each unreviewed electronic communication in the next-most-recent conversation thread may be audibly output in a chronological-sequential order beginning with an oldest unreviewed electronic communication.

BACKGROUND

Communication networks support a broad array of electroniccommunications among users. Text-based electronic communications maytake a variety of different forms, including email, text/SMS messages,real-time/instant messages, multimedia messages, social networkingmessages, messages within multi-player video games, etc. Users may readand type responses to these forms of electronic communications via apersonal electronic device, such as a mobile device or desktop computer.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore,the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solveany or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.

In an example, a computing system receives an instruction to initiateaudio presentation of electronic communications for a recipient.Responsive to the instruction, the computing system audibly outputs eachunreviewed electronic communication in a most-recent conversation threadincluding a most-recent set of unreviewed, reply-linked electroniccommunications for the recipient. Each unreviewed electroniccommunication in the most-recent conversation thread may be audiblyoutput in a chronological-sequential order beginning with an oldestunreviewed electronic communication and continuing to a most-recentunreviewed electronic communication. Responsive to completing audibleoutput of the most-recent unreviewed electronic communication from aconversation thread, the computing device audibly outputs eachunreviewed electronic communication in a next-most-recent conversationthread including a next-most-recent set of unreviewed, reply-linkedelectronic communications for the recipient. Each unreviewed electroniccommunication in the next-most-recent conversation thread may be audiblyoutput in a chronological-sequential order beginning with an oldestunreviewed electronic communication and continuing to a most-recentunreviewed electronic communication.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an example interaction between a user and a personalassistant device.

FIG. 2 schematically depicts an example computing system.

FIG. 3 schematically depicts an example electronic communication.

FIG. 4 depicts an example timeline of an audio presentation output by apersonal assistant device.

FIG. 5 depicts an example timeline of electronic communications for arecipient.

FIG. 6 depicts an example timeline of a presentation order of theelectronic communications of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7A depicts a flow diagram of an example method for organizing andpresenting conversation threads.

FIG. 7B depicts a flow diagram of an example method for presentingconversation threads.

FIG. 8 depicts a flow diagram of an example method for presenting timeidentifying information for a conversation thread.

FIGS. 9A-9E depict tables in which example audible outputs by a personalassistant device are provided for a range of conditions.

FIGS. 10A-10P depict example dialogs between a user and a personalassistant device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The use of text-based electronic communications such as email, textmessaging, and instant messaging has grown to become a primary mode ofcommunication in modern society. Mobile computing devices have enabledpeople to receive their electronic communications at virtually any timeand location. As people go about their day, they may be frequentlyinterrupted by the need or desire to review new electroniccommunications. Visual consumption of text and multimedia contentthrough graphical user interfaces may distract people fromsimultaneously performing other tasks or may preclude people fromperforming tasks until after the electronic communications have beenvisually reviewed. For example, while operating a vehicle, it may beimpossible or dangerous for a person to visually review new text-basedcommunications.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, the use of graphicaluser interfaces to present text and multimedia content of electroniccommunications may be augmented or replaced by audible presentation ofthe electronic communications in a manner that provides users withcontext for the presentation experience and control over the audiblepresentation. Such an audible presentation may provide a user experiencethat is commensurate with or improved over the visual consumption of theelectronic communications, while enabling users to simultaneouslyperform tasks that are difficult or impossible to perform while using agraphical user interface. In essence, the disclosed audible presentationcan translate text-based communications into an experience similar tolistening to a podcast.

FIG. 1 depicts an example interaction 100 between a user 110 and apersonal assistant device 120. In this example, user 110 is commuting towork by bicycle while interacting with personal assistant device 120through user speech 130. Personal assistant device 120 in this exampletakes the form of a mobile computing device. In response to spokencommands of user speech 130, personal assistant device 120 may outputaudio information to user 110 as device speech 140. This is an exampleof a hands-free, display-free interaction that enables the user toengage in tasks, such as commuting to work by bicycle, whilesimultaneously processing electronic communications.

As shown in user speech 130, user 110 begins a dialog with personalassistant device 120 by speaking the command “Read messages.” Inresponse to the spoken command of the user, in device speech 140,personal assistant device 120 outputs audio information that includes:“Hi Sam! I've got 6 conversations for you. This'll take about 5minutes.” In this portion of device speech 140, personal assistantdevice 120 outputs audio information in the form of natural languagethat greets user 110 by the user's name (i.e., “Sam”), identifies aquantity (i.e., “6”) of conversation threads that contain unreviewedelectronic communications for the user, and identifies a duration oftime (i.e., “about 5 minutes”) for the user to review the conversationthreads through audible output of the contents of the electroniccommunications. Thus, user 110 is informed by personal assistant device120 as to the anticipated duration of an audio presentation of theunreviewed electronic communications prior to progressing through theaudio presentation, thereby enabling the user to make informed decisionsas to whether particular electronic communications should be reviewed orskipped.

Continuing with the example dialog of FIG. 1, personal assistant device120 continues by outputting a summary of a first conversation thread touser 110, which identifies a quantity and/or duration of unreviewedelectronic communications of the conversation thread (i.e., “long”) andidentifies a subject of the conversation thread (i.e., “World Cup officepool”). Thus, user 110 is informed as to the subject and estimated timefor reviewing unreviewed electronic communications of the firstconversation thread prior to progressing through an audio presentationof the first conversation thread. Additionally, personal assistantdevice 120 indicates to user 110 that the user is “free to interrupt”,which informs the user that spoken commands by the user may be used toadvance or interrupt audio presentation of the first conversationthread.

Next, personal assistant device 120 outputs a summary of a firstelectronic communication of the first conversation thread to user 110,which identifies a relative time (i.e., “a few hours ago”) that thefirst electronic communication was received, identifies a sender of thefirst electronic communication (i.e., “Greg”), identifies a type of thefirst electronic communication (i.e., “email”), identifies a quantity ofother recipients or the audience of the first electronic communication(i.e., “a large group”), identifies the presence of an attachment to thefirst electronic communication (i.e., “with an attachment”), andidentifies at least a portion of text content of a message of the firstelectronic communication (e.g., “Goal! Can you believe it's alreadyWorld Cup time? . . . ”).

In this example, upon hearing a portion of the text content of the firstelectronic communication, in user speech 130 user 110 speaks the command“Next conversation.” Responsive to this spoken command by user 110,personal assistant device 120 advances the audio presentation of theunreviewed electronic communications to a second conversation thread,thereby skipping audio presentation of remaining unreviewed electroniccommunications of the first conversation thread. For example, personalassistant device 120 responds to user 110 by outputting a summary of thesecond conversation thread, which identifies a quantity of unreviewedelectronic communications of the second conversation thread (i.e., “3”),identifies a type of electronic communications of the secondconversation thread (i.e., “email”), and identifies a subject of thesecond conversation thread (i.e., “HR incident”).

Personal assistant device 120 may progress through conversation threadsin the manner described above until all the unreviewed electroniccommunications have been reviewed by user 110 or the user preemptivelyelects to stop the dialog. By personal assistant device 120 summarizingconversation threads and their contents, user 110 is provided withsufficient information to make informed decisions regarding whether aparticular conversation thread or electronic communication should bereviewed by the user in the current session. In an example in which user110 does not advance or interrupt audio presentation of unreviewedelectronic communications, the audio presentation by personal assistantdevice 120 will conclude in approximately the duration of time (e.g., “5minutes”) identified by the personal assistant device. However, byadvancing the audio presentation, user 110 may review electroniccommunications within a shorter time period.

FIG. 2 schematically depicts an example computing system 200, includinga computing device 210. Computing device 210 may take the form of amobile computing device, a wearable computing device, a computing deviceintegrated with a vehicle, a desktop computing device, a householdappliance computing device, or other suitable device, as examples.Personal assistant device 120 of FIG. 1 is one example of computingdevice 210. Computing device 210 includes a logic subsystem 212, astorage subsystem 214, an input/output (I/O) subsystem 216, and/or othersuitable components not shown in FIG. 2.

Logic subsystem 212 includes one or more physical devices ((e.g., aprocessor) configured to execute instructions. Storage subsystem 214includes one or more physical devices (e.g., memory) configured to holddata 220, including instructions 222 executable by logic subsystem 212to implement the methods and operations described herein. Additionalaspects of logic subsystem 212 and storage subsystem 214 are describedbelow.

As shown in FIG. 2, logic subsystem 212 and storage subsystem 214 maycooperate to instantiate one or more functional components, such as apersonal assistant machine 230, a speech output machine 232, a speechinput machine 234, one or more communications applications 236, and/orother suitable components. As used herein, the term “machine” may beused to collectively refer to a combination of instructions 222 (e.g.,firmware, software, etc.) with hardware and/or other suitable componentsthat cooperate to provide the described functionality. While personalassistant machine 230, speech output machine 232, speech input machine234, and/or communications applications 236 are described as beinginstantiated by cooperation of logic subsystem 212 and storage subsystem214, in at least some examples, one or more of personal assistantmachine 230, speech output machine 232, speech input machine 234, and/orcommunications applications 236 may be instantiated in whole or in partby a remote computing device or system, such as a server system 260.Accordingly, the methods or operations described herein may be performedlocally at computing device 210, remotely at server system 260, or maybe distributed between one or more computing device(s) 210 and/or one ormore server system(s) 260.

Personal assistant machine 230 may engage in a dialog with a user byreceiving and processing spoken commands of the user to perform tasks,including outputting information to the user. As an example, personalassistant machine 230 may output an audio presentation of a plurality ofconversation threads and/or electronic communications for a recipientaccording to a presentation order. Personal assistant machine 230 mayinclude natural language processing, thereby supporting a naturallanguage interface by which a user may interact with computing device210. A device, such as computing device 210, that implements personalassistant machine 230 may be referred to as a personal assistant device.

Speech output machine 232 receives data, such as machine-readable dataand/or text-based data from personal assistant machine 230 to be outputto the user, and converts such data into audio data containing speechhaving natural language components. In an example, speech output machine232 may provide text-to-speech conversion. For example, personalassistant machine 230 may provide select portions of text content of anelectronic communication to speech output machine 232 to convert thetext content into an audible output of the text content for audibleconsumption by the user. In FIG. 1, for example, personal assistantdevice 120 outputs “GOAL! Can you believe it's already World Cup time?”,which is an audible output of text content of an electroniccommunication of which user 110 is a recipient.

Speech input machine 234 receives audio data representing human speech,and converts the audio data into machine-readable data and/or text datathat is usable by personal assistant machine 230 or other suitablecomponents of computing device 210. In an example, speech input machine232 may provide speech-to-text conversion. In FIG. 1, for example,personal assistant device receives and processes the spoken commands ofuser 110, including “Read messages” and “Next conversation” via speechinput machine 234.

The one or more communications applications 236 may support the sendingand receiving of electronic communications 238, of which electroniccommunication 240 is an example. A communication application may supportone or more types of electronic communications, including email,text/SMS messages, real-time/instant messages, multimedia messages,social networking messages, messages within multi-player video games,and/or any other type of electronic communication. Personal assistantmachine 230 may interface with communications applications 236, enablingthe personal assistant machine to receive, process, and send electroniccommunications of one or more different types on-behalf of a user.

I/O subsystem 216 may include one or more of an audio input interface250, an audio output interface 252, a display interface 254, acommunications interface 256, and/or other suitable interfaces.

Computing device 210 receives audio data representing audio captured viaaudio input interface 250. Audio input interface 250 may include one ormore integrated audio microphones and/or may interface with one or moreperipheral audio microphones. For example, computing device 210 mayreceive audio data representing user speech captured via audio inputinterface 250, such as user speech 130 of FIG. 1. Audio data from audioinput interface 250 may be provided to speech input machine 234 and/orpersonal assistant machine 230 for processing. Audio input interface 250may be omitted in at least some examples.

Computing device 210 outputs audio representing audio data via audiooutput interface 252. Audio output interface 252 may include one or moreintegrated audio speakers and/or may interface with one or moreperipheral audio speakers. For example, computing device 210 may outputan audio representation of speech having natural language components viaaudio output interface 252, such as device speech 140 of FIG. 1. Audiodata may be provided by speech output machine 232, personal assistantmachine 230, or other suitable component of computing device 210 toaudio output interface 252 for output as an audible output of the audiodata. Audio output interface 252 may be omitted in at least someexamples.

Computing device 210 may output graphical content representing graphicaldata via display interface 254. Display interface 254 may include one ormore integrated display devices and/or may interface with one or moreperipheral display devices. Display interface 254 may be omitted in atleast some examples.

Computing device 210 may communicate with other devices such as serversystem 260 and/or other computing devices 270 via communicationsinterface 256, enabling computing device 210 to send electroniccommunications to and/or receive electronic communications from theother devices. Communications interface 256 may include one or moreintegrated transceivers and associated communications hardware thatsupport wireless and/or wired communications according to any suitablecommunications protocol. For example, communication interface 256 may beconfigured for communication via a wireless or wired telephone networkand/or a wireless or wired personal-area network, local-area network,and/or wide-area network (e.g., the Internet, a cellular network, or aportion thereof) via a communication network 280. Communicationsinterface 256 may be omitted in at least some examples.

I/O subsystem 216 may further include one or more additional inputdevices and/or output devices in integrated and/or peripheral form.Additional examples of input devices include user-input devices such asa keyboard, mouse, touch screen, touch pad, game controller, etc.,and/or inertial sensors, global positioning sensors, cameras, opticalsensors, etc. Additional examples of output devices include vibrationmotors and light-emitting indicators.

Computing system 200 may further include server system 260 of one ormore server computing devices. Computing system 200 may further includea plurality of other computing devices 270 of which computing device 272is an example. Server system 260 may host a communications service 262that receives, processes, and sends electronic communications between oramong senders and recipients addressed by the electronic communications.For example, users may operate computing devices 210 and 270 to send orreceive electronic communications via communications service 262.Communications service 262 is depicted including a plurality ofelectronic communications 264 of which electronic communication 266 isan example. Electronic communication 266 may be received from computingdevice 272 via network 280 for processing and/or delivery to computingdevice 210 via network 280 in an example. One or more of communicationsapplications 236 may be configured for coordinated operation withcommunications service 262 enabling electronic communications to besent, received, and/or processed for senders and recipients as users ofcomputing devices 210 and 270.

FIG. 3 schematically depicts an example electronic communication 300.Electronic communications 240 and 266 of FIG. 2 are examples ofelectronic communication 300. In an example, electronic communication300 takes the form of data that includes or identifies a sender 310, oneor more recipients 312, a timestamp 314 indicating a timing ((e.g., aclock time and a date of transmission or reception) of receipt ortransmission of the electronic communication, a subject 316 which mayinclude text content 318, a message 320 which may include text content322 and/or media content 324, one or more attachments 326, calendar data328, a communication type 330, and/or other data 332. Electroniccommunication 300 is provided as a nonlimiting example. The presentdisclosure is compatible with virtually any type of electroniccommunication, regardless of the contents of the electroniccommunication that may be specific to that type of electroniccommunication. As such, various aspects of the electronic communicationmay optionally be omitted, and/or various aspects that are notillustrated may be included.

In an example, a user acting as a sender of electronic communication 300may define, through user input, one or more of recipients 312, subject316 including text content 318, message 320 including text content 322and/or media content 324, attachments 326, calendar data 328, and/orother data 332 of electronic communication 300. Timestamp 314 may beassigned by the communications application or communications service asa timing of transmission or reception of electronic communication 300.Communication type 330 may be dependent upon the communicationsapplication or service used by the sender, or may be defined orotherwise selected by user input of the sender in the case of acommunications application or service that supports multiplecommunication types.

FIG. 4 depicts an example timeline 400 of an audio presentation outputby a personal assistant device, such as device 120 of FIG. 1 orcomputing device 210 of FIG. 2. Within timeline 400, time advances froma left-hand side of the figure to a right-hand side of the figure.Timeline 400 may be instantiated from a predefined template that may beimplemented by the personal assistant device disclosed herein.Accordingly, the audible outputs described with respect to timeline 400may be omitted, repeated, or presented in a different order in otherexamples. Furthermore, additional audible outputs may be included inplace of or between the audible outputs of timeline 400.

At 410, a greeting may be presented as an audible output. In an example,the greeting may be presented in response to an instruction 412 receivedby the personal assistant device to initiate presentation of unreviewedelectronic communications for a recipient. Instruction 412 may take theform of a spoken command by a user or other type of user input receivedby the personal assistant device. For example, in FIG. 1, user 110provides an instruction “Read messages” as a spoken command, andpersonal assistant device 120 responds by presenting the greeting “HiSam!”.

At 414, a presentation roadmap may be presented as an audible output.The presentation roadmap may identify one or more of: a quantity ofconversation threads that include one or more unreviewed electroniccommunications for the recipient, a quantity of the unreviewedelectronic communications, a time estimate of the audio presentation forpresenting the conversation threads that include unreviewed electroniccommunications, a length estimate of the unreviewed electroniccommunications, one or more highlighted items, and/or other suitableinformation.

At 416, a barge-in notice may be presented as an audible output. Thebarge-in notice may be used to notify the user that a spoken command maybe provided by the user to perform an action with respect to the audiopresentation or its contents. Referring to the example of FIG. 1, thepersonal assistant device may present the audible output “Feel free tointerrupt” as an example of the barge-in notice presented at 416.

At 418, one or more changes to the day of the user may be presented asan audible output. Changes to the day may include updates to the user'scalendar, and optionally may be derived from calendar data of one ormore of the unreviewed electronic communications.

As described in further detail with reference to FIGS. 5-7, electroniccommunications for a recipient may be organized into conversationthreads in which each conversation thread includes two or morereply-linked electronic communications. By organizing electroniccommunications into conversation threads, a user listening to an audiopresentation of the electronic communications may be better able tocomprehend or track a dialog between or among senders and recipients ofthe electronic communications that form part of the same conversationthread. By contrast, presenting electronic communications according onlyto their chronological order without regard to the context of theconversation may be more difficult for a user to comprehend or trackdialogs between or among senders and recipients, particularly within thecontext of audio presentation of such communications.

A first conversation thread that includes one or more unreviewedelectronic communications for the user may be presented at 470,including a conversation thread summary 420 of the first conversationthread, a communication summary 422 for each unreviewed electroniccommunication of the first conversation thread, and message content 424for each unreviewed electronic communication of the first conversationthread.

At 420, the conversation thread summary for the first conversationthread may be presented as an audible output. The conversation threadsummary may identify one or more of: a subject of the conversationthread as identified from an electronic communication of theconversation thread, a type of the electronic communications of theconversation thread, a quantity of unreviewed electronic communicationsof the conversation thread, recipients and/or an audience (e.g.,quantity, identities of the recipients, and/or a quantity/identity ofrecipients that were added or removed in relation to prior reply-linkedcommunications) of the conversation thread as identified from anelectronic communication of the conversation thread, a time estimate ofa portion of the audio presentation for presenting the unreviewedelectronic communications of the conversation thread, a length estimateof the unreviewed electronic communications of the conversation thread,and/or other suitable information.

Example outputs by the personal assistant device with respect to aquantity of unreviewed electronic communications of a conversationthread are described in further detail with reference to FIG. 9C.Example outputs by the personal assistant device with respect to timeand/or length of a conversation thread and/or an electroniccommunication are described in further detail with reference to FIGS. 9Aand 9E. In an example, the time and/or length estimate of theconversation thread summary may include a length warning. Referring tothe example of FIG. 1, the personal assistant device may present theaudible output “long conversation” as an example of a length warning.

At 422, a first communication summary for a first unreviewed electroniccommunication of the first conversation thread may be presented as anaudible output. The communication summary may identify one or more of asubject of the electronic communication, a type of the electroniccommunication, a timing of the electronic communication based on thetimestamp of the electronic communication, a sender of the electroniccommunication, recipients and/or an audience of the electroniccommunication, a time estimate of a portion of the audio presentationfor presenting the electronic communication, a length estimate of theelectronic communication, an indication of whether one or moreattachments are included with the electronic communication, and/or othersuitable information. Example outputs by the personal assistant devicewith respect to recipients and/or an audience of a conversation threadare described in further detail with reference to FIG. 9B.

At 424, message content of the first unreviewed electronic communicationof the first conversation thread may be presented as an audible output.For example, an audible output of the text content of the message of thefirst unreviewed electronic communication may be presented in part or inits entirety at 424. In FIG. 1, for example, personal assistant device120 outputs an audible output of text content of an electroniccommunications as “GOAL! Can you believe it's already World Cup time?”.In at least some examples, the personal assistant device may select oneor more portions of the text content to include in the audible outputand/or exclude from the audible output. For example, the personalassistant device may refrain from audibly outputting text content ofsignature blocks at a conclusion of a message or web domain addressesincluded within the message. Text content may be audibly output as anaudible reproduction of its text to provide a literal reading of thetext content in some examples. In other examples, text content may beintelligently edited by the personal assistant device to provide animproved listening experience for the user, including correctingspelling/grammatical errors in the text content, reordering textcomponents of the text content, and/or summarizing the text content inthe audible output.

Following presentation of the first unreviewed electronic communication,the audio presentation may proceed to a second unreviewed electroniccommunication of the first conversation thread. For example, at 426, asecond communication summary for a second unreviewed electroniccommunication of the first conversation thread may be presented as anaudible output. At 428, message content of the second unreviewedelectronic communication of the first conversation thread may bepresented as an audible output. The audio presentation may proceedsequentially through each unreviewed electronic communication of thefirst conversation thread. In at least some examples, the unreviewedelectronic communications of a conversation thread may be presentedaccording to a chronological-sequential order based on the respectivetimestamps of the unreviewed electronic communications, beginning withthe oldest unreviewed electronic communication and continuing through tothe most recent unreviewed electronic communication of the conversationthread.

At 430, a guided notice may be presented as an audible output. Theguided notice may be used to inquire whether the user would like toperform an action with respect to the first conversation thread. As anexample, the guided notice may provide a general notice to the user,such as “perform an action or proceed to the next conversation?” or mayprovide targeted notices, such as “would you like to reply to thisconversation?”. At 432, a silent period may be provided to enable theuser to provide an instruction or otherwise take action with respect tothe conversation thread before proceeding to the next conversationthread of the audio presentation.

Following presentation of the first conversation thread at 470, theaudio presentation may proceed to presenting a second conversationthread at 472 that includes one or more unreviewed electroniccommunications for the recipient. Presentation of the secondconversation thread may similarly include presentation of a threadsummary for the second conversation thread at 440, a communicationsummary for a first unreviewed electronic communication of the secondconversation thread at 442, message content of the first unreviewedelectronic communication of the second conversation thread at 444, acommunication summary for a second unreviewed electronic communicationof the second conversation thread at 446, message content of the secondunreviewed electronic communication of the second conversation thread at448, etc., until each unreviewed electronic communication of the secondconversation thread has been presented as an audible output.

The audio presentation may proceed through each conversation thread thatincludes one or more unreviewed electronic communications for therecipient, as previously described with reference to the presentation ofthe first conversation thread at 470. Following presentation of theconversation threads that included one or more unreviewed electroniccommunications, additional information that the personal assistantdevice determines as being potentially relevant to the user may bepresented as an audible output at 460. At 462, the user may besigned-off from the audio presentation session by the personal assistantdevice.

Continuing with the example timeline of FIG. 4, a user may provide aninstruction to the personal assistant device to navigate within theaudio presentation or among conversation threads and their electroniccommunications. For example, responsive to instruction 480, the personalassistant device may advance the audio presentation from presentingcommunication summary at 422 to presenting thread summary at 440 of thesecond conversation thread, thereby enabling the user to skippresentation of some or all of the first conversation thread. In FIG. 1,user 110 provided the spoken command “Next conversation”, as an exampleof instruction 480. As another example, responsive to instruction 480,the personal assistant device may advance the audio presentation frompresenting communication summary at 422 for the first unreviewedelectronic communication to presenting communication summary at 426 forthe second unreviewed electronic communication, thereby enabling theuser to skip presentation of some or all of the first unreviewedelectronic communication.

By organizing electronic communications into conversation threads, auser may perform an action with respect to the electronic communicationsof that conversation thread. For example, as described above, a user mayskip audio presentation of a particular conversation thread, includingthe unreviewed electronic communications of the conversation thread, byproviding a spoken command, such as “Next conversation” of FIG. 1. Asanother example, a user may delete electronic communications of aconversation thread or mark such electronic communications as importantby providing a spoken command, such as instruction 496 within silentperiod 452. Accordingly, the personal assistant device may apply anaction to each of a plurality of electronic communications of aconversation thread responsive to a spoken command by a user.

In at least some examples, audible indicators may be presented as anaudible output by the personal assistant device to notify the user oftransitions between portions of the audio presentation. For example,audible indicator 482 may be presented between presentation of thechanges to the day at 418 and the thread summary at 420, audibleindicators 484 and 490 may be presented between electroniccommunications, audible indicators 486 and 492 may be presented betweenthe guided notice and the silent period, and audible indicators 488 and494 may be presented between the silent period and a subsequentconversation thread and the additional information presented at 460 orsign-off at 462. An audible indicator may take the form of an audibletone or any suitable sound. Audible indicators having distinguishablesounds may be presented at different portions of the audio presentation.For example, audible indicator 484 identifying a transition betweenelectronic communications may differ from audible indicator 488identifying a transition between conversation threads. Such audibleindicators may help a user easily understand whether the personalassistant device has started or completed a particular portion of theaudio presentation, whether the personal assistant device has completeda particular action as instructed by the user, or whether the personalassistant device is currently listening for an instruction to beprovided by the user.

The personal assistant device may support various presentation modes,including a continuous presentation mode and a guided presentation mode.In the continuous presentation mode, the personal assistant device mayproceed through the audio presentation in the absence of instructionsfrom the user. In the guided presentation mode, the personal assistantdevice may pause the audio presentation at transition points to await aninstruction from the user to proceed. For example, in the guidedpresentation mode, the personal assistant device may pause the audiopresentation and output the inquiry: “Would you like to hear thisconversation thread” following presentation of the conversation summary.

FIG. 5 depicts an example timeline 500 of electronic communications.Within timeline 500, time advances from a left-hand side of the figureto a right-hand side of the figure. A timing of each electroniccommunication within FIG. 5 may correspond to a respective timestamp ofthat electronic communication, such as described with reference totimestamp 314 of FIG. 3.

Timeline 500 is divided into multiple conversation threads 510-520, eachincluding one or more electronic communications of a recipient. In thisexample, conversation thread 510 includes electronic communications530-540, conversation thread 512 includes electronic communications550-558, conversation thread 514 includes electronic communications560-564, conversation thread 516 includes electronic communication 570,conversation thread 518 includes electronic communication 580,conversation thread 520 includes electronic communications 590-594.

Multiple electronic communications of a conversation thread may bereferred to as being reply-linked electronic communications in which oneor more electronic communications are replies to an original electroniccommunication, thereby linking these electronic communications to eachother by a common conversation thread. A first electronic communicationthat is a reply to an earlier second electronic communication whichin-turn is a reply to an even earlier third electronic communication maybe considered as being reply-linked to both the second and thirdelectronic communications, thereby forming a common conversation thread.For example, electronic communication 534 is a reply to electroniccommunication 532, which in-turn is a reply to electronic communication530. Therefore, each of electronic communications 530, 532, and 534 formpart of conversation thread 510. For some types of electroniccommunications, such as collaborative messaging platforms ormulti-player gaming platforms, electronic communications associated witha particular channel (e.g., a particular collaborative project ormulti-player game) may be identified as being reply-linked to eachother.

Furthermore, in this example, electronic communications 530-540,554-558, 560-564, 570, and 594 are unreviewed electronic communicationsof the recipient. By contrast, electronic communications 550, 552, 580,and 590 are previously reviewed electronic communications of therecipient. In an example, an electronic communication may be referred toas an unreviewed electronic communication if its message (e.g., message320 of FIG. 3) of the electronic communication has not been presented tothe recipient user through any of visual, audible, or other (e.g.,braille) modes of presentation. For example, within the context ofemail, individual email messages may be marked as “read” or “unread”,which may correspond to electronic communications being previouslyreviewed or unreviewed. Within the example of FIG. 5, electroniccommunication 592 corresponds to a reply by the recipient to previouselectronic communication 590.

As described with reference to the example dialog between user 110 andpersonal assistant device 120 of FIG. 1, multiple conversation threadsmay be presented according to a particular presentation order. In atleast some examples, a presentation order by which two or moreconversation threads are presented may be based on a timing of anunreviewed electronic communication of each conversation thread. In theexample of FIG. 5, electronic communications 530-540 of conversationthread 510 are each received after each of electronic communications550-558 of conversation thread 512, whereas electronic communications560-564 of conversation thread 514 are interspersed in time withelectronic communications of conversation threads 510 and 512.

In a first example presentation order, conversation threads may bepresented according to a reverse chronological-sequential order based ona latest unreviewed electronic communication of each conversationthread. In the example timeline of FIG. 5, conversation thread 510 maybe presented before conversation threads 512, 514, 516, and 520 becauseconversation thread 510 includes the latest unreviewed electroniccommunication 540 having a timing that is after latest unreviewedelectronic communications 558, 564, 570, and 594 of conversation threads512, 514, 516, and 520, respectively. This first example presentationorder may be used to prioritize conversation threads that have the mostrecent activity in terms of unreviewed electronic communications beingreceived for the recipient. Conversation thread 518 may not be presentedin this example, because conversation thread 518 does not include anyunreviewed electronic communications.

FIG. 6 depicts an example timeline 600 of the first example presentationorder described above with respect to the electronic communications ofFIG. 5, in the absence of a user instruction to advance or interruptpresentation of the conversation threads. Within timeline 600, timeadvances from a left-hand side of the figure to a right-hand side of thefigure. Conversation threads 510-516 and 520 are presented within FIG. 6according to a reverse chronological-sequential order based on a latestunreviewed electronic communication of each conversation thread. Withineach conversation thread, unreviewed electronic communications may bepresented in chronological-sequential order beginning with an earliestunreviewed electronic communication of the conversation thread andcontinuing through to the latest unreviewed electronic communication ofthat conversation thread, again in the absence of a user instruction toadvance or interrupt presentation of the conversation threads. Forexample, according to the first example presentation order depicted inFIG. 6, unreviewed electronic communications of FIG. 5 receivedaccording to the following order: 560, 554, 594, 556, 558, 562, 530,532, 570, 534, 564, 536, 538, 540 are presented in the following order:electronic communications 530-540 of conversation thread 510, electroniccommunications 560-564 of conversation thread 514, electroniccommunication 516 of conversation thread 570, electronic communications554-558 of conversation thread 512, and electronic conversation 594 ofconversation thread 520.

Returning to FIG. 5, in a second example presentation order,conversation threads may be presented according to achronological-sequential order based on a latest unreviewed electroniccommunication of each conversation thread. This will result in theopposite ordering of conversation threads compared to thereverse-chronological-sequential order described above. For example, inthe example timeline of FIG. 5, conversation thread 512 may be presentedbefore conversation threads 510 and 514, because conversation thread 512includes latest unreviewed electronic communication 558 having a timingthat is before latest unreviewed electronic communications 540 and 564of conversation threads 510 and 514, respectively.

In a third example presentation order, conversation threads may bepresented according to a reverse chronological-sequential order based ona timing of an earliest unreviewed electronic communication of eachconversation thread. In the example timeline of FIG. 5, conversationthread 510 may be presented before conversation threads 512 and 514,because conversation thread 510 includes earliest unreviewed electroniccommunication 530 having a timing that is after earliest unreviewedelectronic communications 554 and 560 of conversation threads 512 and514, respectively.

In a fourth example presentation order, conversation threads may bepresented according to a chronological-sequential order based on atiming of an earliest unreviewed electronic communication of eachconversation thread. In the example timeline of FIG. 5, conversationthread 514 may be presented before conversation threads 510 and 512,because conversation thread 514 includes earliest unreviewed electroniccommunication 560 having a timing that is before earliest unreviewedelectronic communications 530 and 554 of conversation threads 510 and512, respectively.

In a fifth example presentation order, conversation threads that includea reply by the recipient at some point within the thread may beprioritized in the presentation order over conversation threads that donot include a reply by the recipient. In the example timeline of FIG. 5,unreviewed electronic communication 594 of conversation thread 520 maybe presented before electronic communications of conversation threads510-516, because conversation thread 520 includes reply electroniccommunication 592 by the recipient. The presence of reply electroniccommunication 592 in conversation thread 520 may indicate heightenedimportance of conversation thread 520 as compared to other conversationthreads. Among multiple conversation threads that each include a replyby the recipient, the presentation order of unreviewed electroniccommunications may utilize any of the first, second, third, or fourthexample presentation orders discussed above for presenting conversationthreads that include a reply by the recipient prior to presentingunreviewed electronic communications of conversation threads that do notinclude a reply by the recipient.

In a sixth example presentation order, prioritization of conversationthreads having a reply by the recipient, such as described above withrespect to the fifth example presentation order, may consider only thosereplies by the recipient for which an unreviewed electroniccommunication is a reply directly to that reply of the recipient. Thispresentation order may be used to prioritize conversation threads thatinclude unreviewed electronic communications that are directlyreply-linked to replies of the recipient over other conversationthreads.

In a seventh example presentation order, conversation threads may beprioritized based on one or more factors, including the content of thesubject, message, or attachment of the electronic communications, thesenders of the electronic communications, the quantity of electroniccommunications per conversation thread, the frequency of electroniccommunications per conversation thread, the presence of importanceindicators (e.g., flags) associated with the electronic communications,etc. In an example, conversation threads may be ranked according to theone or more factors, and may be presented in an order that is based onthe ranking of the conversation threads. Such ranking may be based onany desired heuristics, machine learning algorithms, or other rankingmethodologies.

FIG. 7A depicts a flow diagram of an example method 700 for organizingand presenting conversation threads. Method 700 or portions thereof maybe performed by one or more computing devices of a computing system. Forexample, method 700 may be performed by computing device 210 of FIG. 2,or by a computing system that includes computing device 210 incombination with server system 260 of FIG. 2.

At 710, electronic communications are obtained for a recipient. In anexample, the electronic communications may be obtained at a computingdevice of a user from a remote server system via a communicationsnetwork. The electronic communications obtained for the recipient at 710may span one or more types of electronic communications, and may becollected from one or more communications services and/or applications.Furthermore, the electronic communications obtained at 710 may refer toa subset of all electronic communications of the recipient. For example,the electronic communications obtained at 710 may include a primary orfocused inbox or folder of the recipient, and may exclude other inboxesor folders such as junk mail, promotions, etc.

At 712, unreviewed electronic communications are identified for therecipient among the electronic communication obtained at 710. Aspreviously described with reference to FIG. 5, an electroniccommunication may be referred to as an unreviewed electroniccommunication if its message (e.g., message 320 of FIG. 3) of theelectronic communication has not been presented to the recipient userthrough any of visual, audible, or tactile (e.g., braille) modes ofpresentation. In an example, an identifier indicating whether anelectronic communication is reviewed or unreviewed may be stored asmetadata of the electronic communication. In another example, theidentifier may be stored at the communications application or servicefrom which the electronic communication is obtained, and may be reportedby the application or service with the electronic communication.

At 714, electronic communications obtained at 710 are organizedaccording to a schema. The schema may be programmatically defined by oneor more of a communications application of the user's computing device,by a communications service of a server system, or by a personalassistant machine, depending on implementation. For example, somecommunications services or applications may organize or partiallyorganize electronic communications into conversation threads, whereasother communications services or applications may not support the use ofconversation threads.

At 716, electronic communications obtained at 710 may be grouped into aplurality of conversation threads containing two or more reply-linkedelectronic communications. As previously described, two or moreelectronic communications are reply-linked if an electroniccommunication is a reply to an earlier electronic communication, andthat an electronic communication may be reply-linked to an earlierelectronic communication by one or more intermediate reply-linkedelectronic communications. Following operation 716, each conversationthread includes two or more electronic communications for the recipientthat are reply-linked to each other. However, it will be understood thatat least some conversation threads may include an individual electroniccommunication. At 718, data representing the grouping of electroniccommunications may be stored for each conversation thread. For example,data representing the grouping from operation 716 may be stored in astorage subsystem of a computing device, including locally at the user'scomputing device and/or at a remote server system.

At 720, electronic communications of each conversation thread may beordered in chronological order according to a timestamp indicating atiming of each electronic communication. At 722, data representing theordering of electronic communications may be stored for eachconversation thread. For example, data representing the ordering fromoperation 722 may be stored in a storage subsystem of a computingdevice, including locally at the user's computing device and/or at aremote server system.

At 724, the conversation threads may be ordered based on a rule toobtain a presentation order among the conversation threads. Aspreviously described with reference to the presentation order examplesof FIG. 5, a variety of different presentation orders may be supportedamong conversation threads. According to the first example presentationorder described in further detail with reference to FIG. 6, the ruleapplied at operation 724 may include identifying the most recentunreviewed electronic communication of each conversation thread, andordering the conversation threads in reverse chronological order basedon the timing of the most recent unreviewed electronic communications ofthe conversation threads. The rule applied at operation 724 may bedefined to provide any of the example presentation orders describedherein. At 726, data representing the ordering of conversation threadsmay be stored. For example, data representing the ordering fromoperation 724 may be stored in a storage subsystem of a computingdevice, including locally at the user's computing device and/or at aremote server system.

At 728, an instruction to initiate audio presentation of the electroniccommunications for the recipient is received. The instruction may takethe form of a spoken command by a user, such as previously describedwith reference to FIG. 1 in which user speech 130 includes “Readmessages”. In at least some examples, a spoken command to initiate theaudio presentation may include one or more keywords that are predefinedat and recognizable by the personal assistant device, such as“Messages”, “Play messages”, “Read messages”, “Hear messages”, “Getmail”, “tell me about my emails”, What emails do I have?”, “Did anyoneemail me?”, “Do I have any new emails?”, etc. In at least some examples,a user's intent to initiate the audio presentation by a particularspoken utterance may be inferred from context and/or may be learned fromprior interaction with a user. For example, the personal assistantdevice may ask the user whether the user would like to initiate audiopresentation of unreviewed electronic communications, to which the usemay respond by speaking “yes” or “please”. The instruction received at728 may also include non-verbal commands, such as user inputs providedvia any input device or interface of the user's computing device.Furthermore, in some examples, audio presentation of unreviewedelectronic communications may be initiated in certain contexts by thepersonal assistant device without receiving an instruction. For example,the personal assistant device may initiate the audio presentationresponsive to a particular operating condition, such as a scheduledtime, a user picking up the personal assistant device, reception of anew unreviewed electronic communication, etc.

At 730, responsive to the instruction received at 728, an audiopresentation of the conversation threads is output according to thepresentation order obtained at operation 724. The presentation order maybe defined by one or more of the grouping of electronic communicationsat 716, the ordering of electronic communications at 720, and theordering of conversation threads at 724, and may be based on the datastored at 718, 722, and 726.

In an example, the audio presentation includes unreviewed electroniccommunications of each conversation thread in a chronological-sequentialorder beginning with an oldest unreviewed electronic communication andcontinuing to a most recent unreviewed electronic communication of theconversation thread before another of the plurality of conversationthreads that includes an unreviewed electronic communication that isinterspersed in time between the oldest unreviewed electroniccommunication and the most recent unreviewed electronic communication ofthe conversation thread. For example, at 732, two or more unreviewedelectronic communications of a first conversation thread are audiblyoutput according a chronological sequential order before unreviewedelectronic communications of a second conversation thread at 734.

Furthermore, in an example, the presentation order of the conversationthreads may be a reverse chronological-sequential order based on a mostrecent unreviewed electronic communication of each of the plurality ofconversation threads such that the first conversation thread having afirst most recent unreviewed electronic communication is presented at732 before the second conversation thread having a second most recentunreviewed electronic communication that is older than the first mostrecent unreviewed electronic communication of the plurality ofconversation threads. An example of this reversechronological-sequential order is described with reference to FIG. 6.

The audio presentation output at 730 may include, for each unreviewedelectronic communication, at least a portion of text content of amessage of the unreviewed electronic communication presented as anaudible output. In an example, all text content of the message of theunreviewed electronic communication may be presented as an audibleoutput. Furthermore, in at least some examples, the audio presentationfurther includes, for each conversation thread of the plurality ofconversation threads, a thread summary of the conversation threadpresented as an audible output before the text content of theconversation thread. Examples of thread summaries presented beforemessage content are described with reference to FIG. 4.

At 740, a second instruction to advance the audio presentation may bereceived. The instruction received at 740 may take the form of a spokencommand of a user, such as previously described with reference to FIG. 1in which user speech 130 includes “Next conversation”. However, theinstruction received at 740 may include non-verbal commands, such asuser inputs provided via any input device or interface of the user'scomputing device.

At 742, responsive to the second instruction, the audio presentation ofthe plurality of conversation threads may be advanced from a currentconversation thread to a subsequent conversation thread of thepresentation order. It will be understood that other forms of navigationwithin the audio presentation may be supported by the personal assistantdevice, including ending the audio presentation, restarting the audiopresentation, skipping to a next conversation thread, skipping to aparticular conversation thread identified by the user, skipping a nextunreviewed electronic communication, skipping to a particular unreviewedelectronic communication identified by the user, etc.

The action of advancing audio presentation with respect to aconversation thread is one of a plurality of actions that may besupported by the personal assistant device. For example, operation 740may instead include an instruction to perform a different action, suchas replying to, forwarding on to another recipient, storing, or deletingthe conversation thread, or marking the conversation thread as important(e.g., flagging the conversation thread or an electronic communicationthereof). For at least some types of action, responsive to theinstruction to perform the action, the action may be applied to eachelectronic communication of the conversation thread by the personalassistant device at 742. A spoken command used to initiate a particularaction by the personal assistant device may include one or more keywordsthat are predefined at and recognizable by the personal assistantdevice, or an intent of a spoken utterance may be inferred by thepersonal assistant device from context, such as previously describedwith reference to the instruction received at 728.

FIG. 7B depicts a flow diagram of an example method 750 for presentingconversation threads. Method 750 may be performed in combination withmethod 700 of FIG. 7A. For example, method 750 or portions thereof mayform part of operation 730 of method 700. Method 750 or portions thereofmay be performed by one or more computing devices of a computing system.For example, method 700 may be performed by computing device 210 of FIG.2, or by a computing system that includes computing device 210 incombination with server system 260 of FIG. 2.

At 752, an instruction may be received. For example, the instructionreceived at 752 may correspond to the instruction received at 728 ofFIG. 7A. Responsive to the instruction, the method at 752 includesaudibly outputting each unreviewed electronic communication in amost-recent conversation thread including a most-recent set ofunreviewed, reply-linked electronic communications for the recipient.For example, the personal assistant device audibly outputs the next-mostrecent conversation thread at 754. As part of audibly outputting thenext-most recent conversation thread at 754, the personal assistantdevice may audibly output the thread summary at 756. However, the threadsummary may not be audibly output in other examples.

At 758, each unreviewed electronic communication in the most-recentconversation thread may be audibly output in a chronological-sequentialorder beginning with an oldest unreviewed electronic communication at760. Audibly outputting the oldest unreviewed electronic communicationat 760 may include audibly outputting the communication summary at 762and audibly outputting some or all of the text content of the message at764. However, the communication summary may not be audibly output inother examples.

At 766, if more unreviewed electronic communications are in theconversation thread, the method returns to 760 where the oldestunreviewed electronic communication is audibly output. Accordingly, themethod continues to a most-recent unreviewed electronic communication,such as previously described with reference to the example presentationorder of FIG. 6.

At 766, if there are no more unreviewed electronic communications in theconversation thread, the method proceeds to 768. At 768, if there aremore conversation threads that include unreviewed electroniccommunications, the method may return to 754 where the next-most recentconversation thread is audibly output at 754. Accordingly, responsive tocompleting audible output of the most-recent unreviewed electroniccommunication from a conversation thread, the method includes audiblyoutputting each unreviewed electronic communication in anext-most-recent conversation thread including a next-most-recent set ofunreviewed, reply-linked electronic communications for the recipient.Each unreviewed electronic communication in the next-most-recentconversation thread is audibly output at 758 in achronological-sequential order beginning with an oldest unreviewedelectronic communication and continuing to a most-recent unreviewedelectronic communication.

As described, for example, with reference to FIGS. 4-6, at least oneunreviewed electronic communication from the next-most-recentcommunication thread may be chronologically intermediate two unreviewedelectronic communications from the most-recent conversation thread, andall of the unreviewed electronic communications from the most-recentconversation thread may be audibly output before any of the unreviewedelectronic communications from the next-most-recent communication threadare audibly output through the use of method 750.

FIG. 8 depicts a flow diagram of an example method 800 for presentingtime identifying information for a conversation thread. Method 800 orportions thereof may be performed by one or more computing devices of acomputing system. For example, method 800 may be performed by computingdevice 210 of FIG. 2, or by a computing system that includes computingdevice 210 in combination with server system 260 of FIG. 2.

At 810, the method includes receiving an instruction to initiate audiopresentation of electronic communications for a recipient. As previouslydescribed with reference to operation 728 of FIG. 7, the instruction mayinclude a spoken command of a user.

At 812, electronic communications for the recipient are obtained. Aspreviously described with reference to operation 710 of FIG. 7,electronic communications for the recipient may be obtained at acomputing device of a user from a remote server system via acommunications network.

At 814, unreviewed electronic communications for the recipient areidentified. As previously described with reference to FIG. 5, anelectronic communication may be referred to as an unreviewed electroniccommunication if its message (e.g., message 320 of FIG. 3) has not beenpresented to the recipient user through any of visual, audible, or other(e.g., braille) modes of presentation. In an example, an identifierindicating whether an electronic communication is reviewed or unreviewedmay be stored as metadata of the electronic communication. In anotherexample, the identifier may be stored at the communications applicationor service from which the electronic communication is obtained, and maybe reported by the application or service with the electroniccommunication.

At 816, an estimated time is determined to present a portion of an audiopresentation in which the portion includes audible output of textcontent of the unreviewed electronic communications for the recipient.The text content may include the text content of a message of eachunreviewed electronic communication. As an example, the estimated timeis determined based on a feature of the text content of the plurality ofunreviewed electronic communications. The feature of the text contentmay include a word count or a character count of the text content, asexamples; and the time estimate may be algorithmically computed based onthe word or character count (e.g., 0.7 seconds per word). As anotherexample, the method may further include converting the text content ofthe plurality of unreviewed electronic communications into audio datarepresenting the audible output of the text content, determining theestimated time to present the subsequent portion of the audiopresentation based on a feature of the audio data. The feature of theaudio data may include an amount (e.g., a byte count) of the audio dataor a duration of the audio data at a target presentation rate, asexamples.

The estimate time may be determined based on other information containedin the audio presentation that is to be audibly output by the personalassistant device in the subsequent portion. For example, where the audiopresentation includes thread summaries for each conversation thread, theestimated time may be determined further based on the duration of thethread summaries within the subsequent portion of the audiopresentation.

In at least some examples, the estimated time identified by thepresentation road map may take the form of a generalized time estimate.FIG. 9A depicts examples of generalized time estimates. In the case of ageneralized time estimate, operation 816 may further include determiningan initial value for the estimated time, and selecting the generalizedtime estimate from a plurality of graduated generalized time estimatesbased on the initial value for the estimated time. The examples of ageneralized time estimate depicted in FIG. 9A refer to sessionsdurations that represent the initial value for the estimated time. In atleast some examples, the estimated time may be rounded to a generalizedtime estimate, for example, as depicted in FIG. 9A.

At 818, the audio presentation is output responsive to the instruction.Outputting the audio presentation includes outputting an initial portionof the audio presentation that includes a presentation road map 820, anda subsequent portion that includes the audible output of the textcontent of the plurality of unreviewed electronic communications for therecipient. In an example, the presentation road map output at 820identifies the estimated time to present the subsequent portion of theaudio presentation output at operation 822, which corresponds to theportion for which the estimate time was determined at operation 816.

The presentation road map output at 818 may identify other features ofthe audio presentation, such as previously described with reference toFIG. 4. As an example, the presentation road map may further identify aquantity of the unreviewed electronic communications and/or a quantityof conversation threads for the unreviewed electronic communications.

Aspects of method 800 may be similarly performed to present an estimatedtime in a thread summary for a conversation thread containing one ormore reply-linked electronic communications or for a communicationsummary of an individual electronic communication, such as describedwith reference to FIG. 4.

FIGS. 9A-9E depict tables in which example audible outputs by a personalassistant device are provided for a range of conditions. The audibleoutputs depicted in FIGS. 9A-9E may be used as part of a dialog with auser, including as part of the presentation roadmap, thread summary, andcommunication summary as examples.

FIG. 9A depicts various example natural language responses by thepersonal assistant device based on an estimate time or duration of anaudio presentation or a portion thereof.

FIG. 9B depicts various example natural language responses by thepersonal assistant device based on the recipients of an electroniccommunication or conversation thread.

FIG. 9C depicts various example natural language responses by thepersonal assistant device based on a quantity of unreviewed electroniccommunications of a conversation thread.

FIG. 9D depicts various example natural language responses by thepersonal assistant device based on changes to the recipients ofelectronic communications within a conversation thread.

FIG. 9E depicts various example natural language responses by thepersonal assistant device based on an estimate of a duration of an audiopresentation of text content of a message.

FIGS. 10A-10P depict example dialogs between a user and a personalassistant device in accordance with the above description. The portionsof the example dialogs of FIGS. 10A-10P corresponding to the personalassistant device denoted by “Assistant” may take the form of audibleoutputs of the personal assistant device, and the portions of thedialogs corresponding to the user denoted by “User” may take the form ofspoken utterances of the user.

In at least some examples, the personal assistant device may utilize oneor more conversation templates configured to implement the logic ofmethod 700. For example, the timeline of FIG. 4 may represent a dialoginstantiated from a conversation template that begins with a greeting410, progresses to a presentation roadmap 414, changes to the day 418,and then loops through each unreviewed conversation thread according tomethod 750, before ending with a guided notice 450, additionalinformation 460, and sign off 462. It is to be understood that differenttemplates presenting information in different orders may be used. Suchtemplates may be configured to branch to different dialog ordersresponsive to user instructions.

FIGS. 10A-10C depict an example dialog. In FIG. 10A, the personalassistant device audibly outputs a presentation roadmap such aspreviously described with reference to FIG. 1, followed by audibleoutput of additional conversation threads. In FIGS. 10B and 10C, theuser provides instructions to perform additional actions with respect toconversation threads, including flagging electronic communications asimportant. In FIG. 10B, for example, the user uses a barge-in spokencommand in the form of “flag that” as the personal assistant device isaudibly outputting text content of a message from sender “Satya”. Also,in FIG. 10B, the user provides a spoken command “Flag it” during asilent period (e.g., silent period 432 of FIG. 4) provided by thepersonal assistant device after a conversation thread for the subject“Pizza party” is audibly output by the personal assistant device. InFIG. 10C, the personal assistant device concludes the audio presentationof electronic communications by audibly outputting “You've got a packagefrom Company XYZ on its way” as an example of additional information 460of FIG. 4, and “That's all for now” as an audible indication of sign-off462 of FIG. 4.

FIGS. 10D and 10E depict example dialogs for inbox inquiries. In FIG.10D, the personal assistant device uses a guided presentation mode inwhich the personal assistant device asks the user “Which sender do youwanna hear more about?” after a presentation roadmap is audibly outputthat identifies specific senders “Jade”, “Ruby”, and “Trent” among otherroad map information. This inquiry by the personal assistant device maytake the form of barge-in notice 416 of FIG. 4. Responsive to the userspeaking “Jade”, the personal assistant device presents a thread summaryfor the unreviewed electronic communication from Jade, which againidentifies the sender “Jade”, the subject “Touching letter . . . ”, anda time/length estimate of “it's a long one”. Following the threadsummary, the personal assistant device uses the guided presentation modeto ask the user “Wanna hear it?”, and responsive to the user providingthe spoken command “yes” the personal assistant device audibly outputsat least a portion of the text content of the message.

In FIG. 10E, the personal assistant device highlights three unreviewedelectronic communications that the user may want to hear from a total of10 unreviewed electronic communications.

FIG. 10F depicts an example dialog for people-based queries.

FIG. 10G depicts an example dialog in which the personal assistantdevice highlights a particular sender of an electronic communicationwithin a presentation roadmap.

FIG. 10H depicts an example dialog of an inbox inquiry in which thepersonal assistant device determines that unreviewed electroniccommunications are not important.

FIG. 10I depicts an example dialog of an inbox inquiry in which thereare no unreviewed electronic communications for the recipient.

FIG. 10J depicts an example dialog in which the personal assistantdevice prepares and sends an electronic communication on-behalf of theuser responsive to spoken commands.

FIG. 10K depicts an example dialog in which the personal assistantdevice replies to an electronic communication on-behalf of the userresponsive to spoken commands.

FIG. 10L depicts an example dialog in which the personal assistantdevice replies to an electronic communication having a plurality ofrecipients on-behalf of the user responsive to spoken commands.

FIG. 10M depicts an example dialog in which the personal assistantdevice forwards an electronic communication to another recipientidentified by the user through a spoken command.

FIG. 10N depicts an example dialog in which the personal assistantdevice saves a draft of a reply on-behalf of the user.

FIG. 10O depicts an example dialog in which the user selects aparticular electronic communication to be audibly output by the personalassistant device.

FIG. 10P depicts an example dialog in which the personal assistantdevice audibly outputs calendar data of electronic communications andperforms actions with respect to the calendar data responsive to spokencommands of the user. For example, the personal assistant device outputs“Would you like to accept this meeting?” for which the user responds“Yes”, responsive to which the personal assistant device sends a meetingconfirmation reply to the sender of the meeting request (i.e., “Nicki”).

In at least some examples, the methods and processes described hereinmay be tied to a computing system of one or more computing devices. Inparticular, such methods and processes may be implemented as acomputer-application program or service, an application-programminginterface (API), a library, and/or other computer-program product.

Referring again to FIG. 2, computing system 200 is an example computingsystem that can enact one or more of the methods and operationsdescribed herein. Computing system 200 is shown in simplified form.Computing system 200 may take the form of one or more mobile computingdevices, wearable computing devices, computing devices integrated withvehicles, desktop computing devices, household appliance computingdevices, personal computers, server computers, tablet computers,home-entertainment computers, network computing devices, gaming devices,mobile computing devices, mobile communication devices (e.g., smartphone), Internet of Things (IoT) devices, embedded computing devices,and/or other computing devices.

Logic subsystem 212 may include one or more processors configured toexecute software instructions. Additionally or alternatively, the logicsubsystem may include one or more hardware or firmware logic circuitsconfigured to execute hardware or firmware instructions. Processors ofthe logic subsystem may be single-core or multi-core, and theinstructions executed thereon may be configured for sequential,parallel, and/or distributed processing. Individual components of thelogic subsystem optionally may be distributed among two or more separatedevices, which may be remotely located and/or configured for coordinatedprocessing. Aspects of the logic subsystem may be virtualized andexecuted by remotely accessible, networked computing devices configuredin a cloud-computing configuration.

Storage subsystem 214 may include removable and/or built-in devices.Storage subsystem 214 may include optical memory (e.g., CD, DVD, HD-DVD,Blu-Ray Disc, etc.), semiconductor memory (e.g., RAM, EPROM, EEPROM,etc.), and/or magnetic memory (e.g., hard-disk drive, floppy-disk drive,tape drive, MRAM, etc.), among others. Storage subsystem 214 may includevolatile, nonvolatile, dynamic, static, read/write, read-only,random-access, sequential-access, location-addressable,file-addressable, and/or content-addressable devices. It will beappreciated that storage subsystem 214 includes one or more physicaldevices and is not merely an electromagnetic signal, an optical signal,etc. that is not held by a physical device for a finite duration.

Aspects of logic subsystem 212 and storage subsystem 214 may beintegrated together into one or more hardware-logic components. Suchhardware-logic components may include field-programmable gate arrays(FPGAs), program- and application-specific integrated circuits(PASIC/ASICs), program- and application-specific standard products(PSSP/ASSPs), system-on-a-chip (SOC), and complex programmable logicdevices (CPLDs), for example.

When the methods and operations described herein are implemented bylogic subsystem 212 and storage subsystem 214, a state of storagesubsystem 214 may be transformed—e.g., to hold different data. Forexample, logic subsystem 212 may be configured to execute instructions222 that are part of one or more applications, services, programs,routines, libraries, objects, components, data structures, or otherlogical constructs. Such instructions may be implemented to perform atask, implement a data type, transform the state of one or morecomponents, achieve a technical effect, or otherwise arrive at a desiredresult.

The logic subsystem and the storage subsystem may cooperate toinstantiate one or more logic machines, such as previously describedwith reference to personal assistant machine 230, speech output machine232, and speech input machine 234. It will be understood that the“machines” as described herein (e.g., with reference to FIG. 2) arenever abstract ideas and always have a tangible form. Instructions 222that provide a particular machine with functionality in combination withhardware may optionally be saved as an unexecuted module on a suitablestorage device, and such a module may be transmitted via networkcommunication and/or transfer of the physical storage device on whichthe module is saved.

Machines may be implemented using any suitable combination ofstate-of-the-art and/or future machine learning (ML), artificialintelligence (AI), and/or natural language processing (NLP) techniques.Non-limiting examples of techniques that may be incorporated in animplementation of one or more machines include support vector machines,multi-layer neural networks, convolutional neural networks ((e.g.,including spatial convolutional networks for processing images and/orvideos, temporal convolutional neural networks for processing audiosignals and/or natural language sentences, and/or any other suitableconvolutional neural networks configured to convolve and pool featuresacross one or more temporal and/or spatial dimensions), recurrent neuralnetworks (e.g., long short-term memory networks), associative memories(e.g., lookup tables, hash tables, Bloom Filters, Neural Turing Machineand/or Neural Random Access Memory), word embedding models (e.g., GloVeor Word2Vec), unsupervised spatial and/or clustering methods (e.g.,nearest neighbor algorithms, topological data analysis, and/or k-meansclustering), graphical models (e.g., (hidden) Markov models, Markovrandom fields, (hidden) conditional random fields, and/or AT knowledgebases), and/or natural language processing techniques (e.g.,tokenization, stemming, constituency and/or dependency parsing, and/orintent recognition, segmental models, and/or super-segmental models(e.g., hidden dynamic models)).

In some examples, the methods and processes described herein may beimplemented using one or more differentiable functions, wherein agradient of the differentiable functions may be calculated and/orestimated with regard to inputs and/or outputs of the differentiablefunctions (e.g., with regard to training data, and/or with regard to anobjective function). Such methods and processes may be at leastpartially determined by a set of trainable parameters. Accordingly, thetrainable parameters for a particular method or process may be adjustedthrough any suitable training procedure, in order to continually improvefunctioning of the method or process.

Non-limiting examples of training procedures for adjusting trainableparameters include supervised training (e.g., using gradient descent orany other suitable optimization method), zero-shot, few-shot,unsupervised learning methods (e.g., classification based on classesderived from unsupervised clustering methods), reinforcement learning(e.g., deep Q learning based on feedback) and/or generative adversarialneural network training methods, belief propagation, RANSAC (randomsample consensus), contextual bandit methods, maximum likelihoodmethods, and/or expectation maximization. In some examples, a pluralityof methods, processes, and/or components of systems described herein maybe trained simultaneously with regard to an objective function measuringperformance of collective functioning of the plurality of components(e.g., with regard to reinforcement feedback and/or with regard tolabelled training data). Simultaneously training the plurality ofmethods, processes, and/or components may improve such collectivefunctioning. In some examples, one or more methods, processes, and/orcomponents may be trained independently of other components (e.g.,offline training on historical data).

Language models may utilize vocabulary features to guidesampling/searching for words for recognition of speech. For example, alanguage model may be at least partially defined by a statisticaldistribution of words or other vocabulary features. For example, alanguage model may be defined by a statistical distribution of n-grams,defining transition probabilities between candidate words according tovocabulary statistics. The language model may be further based on anyother appropriate statistical features, and/or results of processing thestatistical features with one or more machine learning and/orstatistical algorithms ((e.g., confidence values resulting from suchprocessing). In some examples, a statistical model may constrain whatwords may be recognized for an audio signal, e.g., based on anassumption that words in the audio signal come from a particularvocabulary.

Alternately or additionally, the language model may be based on one ormore neural networks previously trained to represent audio inputs andwords in a shared latent space, e.g., a vector space learned by one ormore audio and/or word models (e.g., wav2letter and/or word2vec).Accordingly, finding a candidate word may include searching the sharedlatent space based on a vector encoded by the audio model for an audioinput, in order to find a candidate word vector for decoding with theword model. The shared latent space may be utilized to assess, for oneor more candidate words, a confidence that the candidate word isfeatured in the speech audio.

The language model may be used in conjunction with an acoustical modelconfigured to assess, for a candidate word and an audio signal, aconfidence that the candidate word is included in speech audio in theaudio signal based on acoustical features of the word (e.g.,mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, formants, etc.). Optionally, insome examples, the language model may incorporate the acoustical model(e.g., assessment and/or training of the language model may be based onthe acoustical model). The acoustical model defines a mapping betweenacoustic signals and basic sound units such as phonemes, e.g., based onlabelled speech audio. The acoustical model may be based on any suitablecombination of state-of-the-art or future machine learning (ML) and/orartificial intelligence (AT) models, for example: deep neural networks(e.g., long short-term memory, temporal convolutional neural network,restricted Boltzmann machine, deep belief network), hidden Markov models(HMM), conditional random fields (CRF) and/or Markov random fields,Gaussian mixture models, and/or other graphical models (e.g., deepBayesian network). Audio signals to be processed with the acoustic modelmay be pre-processed in any suitable manner, e.g., encoding at anysuitable sampling rate, Fourier transform, band-pass filters, etc. Theacoustical model may be trained to recognize the mapping betweenacoustic signals and sound units based on training with labelled audiodata. For example, the acoustical model may be trained based on labelledaudio data comprising speech audio and corrected text, in order to learnthe mapping between the speech audio signals and sound units denoted bythe corrected text. Accordingly, the acoustical model may be continuallyimproved to improve its utility for correctly recognizing speech audio.

In some examples, in addition to statistical models, neural networks,and/or acoustical models, the language model may incorporate anysuitable graphical model, e.g., a hidden Markov model (HMM) or aconditional random field (CRF). The graphical model may utilizestatistical features (e.g., transition probabilities) and/or confidencevalues to determine a probability of recognizing a word, given thespeech audio and/or other words recognized so far. Accordingly, thegraphical model may utilize the statistical features, previously trainedmachine learning models, and/or acoustical models to define transitionprobabilities between states represented in the graphical model.

In at least some examples, I/O subsystem 216 may include or interfacewith selected natural user input (NUI) componentry. Such componentry maybe integrated or peripheral, and the transduction and/or processing ofinput actions may be handled on- or off-board. Example NUI componentrymay include a microphone for speech and/or voice recognition; aninfrared, color, stereoscopic, and/or depth camera for machine visionand/or gesture recognition; a head tracker, eye tracker, accelerometer,and/or gyroscope for motion detection and/or intent recognition; as wellas electric-field sensing componentry for assessing brain activity.

It will be appreciated that a “service”, as used herein, is anapplication program executable across multiple user sessions. A servicemay be available to one or more system components, programs, and/orother services. In some implementations, a service may run on one ormore server-computing devices.

According to an example of the present disclosure, a method performed bya computing system comprises: receiving an instruction to initiate audiopresentation of electronic communications for a recipient; responsive tothe instruction, audibly outputting each unreviewed electroniccommunication in a most-recent conversation thread including amost-recent set of unreviewed, reply-linked electronic communicationsfor the recipient, wherein each unreviewed electronic communication inthe most-recent conversation thread is audibly output in achronological-sequential order beginning with an oldest unreviewedelectronic communication and continuing to a most-recent unreviewedelectronic communication; and responsive to completing audible output ofthe most-recent unreviewed electronic communication from a conversationthread, audibly outputting each unreviewed electronic communication in anext-most-recent conversation thread including a next-most-recent set ofunreviewed, reply-linked electronic communications for the recipient,wherein each unreviewed electronic communication in the next-most-recentconversation thread is audibly output in a chronological-sequentialorder beginning with an oldest unreviewed electronic communication andcontinuing to a most-recent unreviewed electronic communication. In thisor any other example disclosed herein, at least one unreviewedelectronic communication from the next-most-recent communication threadis chronologically intermediate two unreviewed electronic communicationsfrom the most-recent conversation thread, and all of the unreviewedelectronic communications from the most-recent conversation thread areaudibly output before any of the unreviewed electronic communicationsfrom the next-most-recent communication thread are audibly output.

According to another example of the present disclosure, a methodperformed by a computing system comprises: receiving an instruction toinitiate audio presentation of electronic communications for arecipient; and responsive to the instruction, outputting an audiopresentation of a plurality of conversation threads according to apresentation order, wherein each conversation thread includes two ormore unreviewed electronic communications for the recipient that arereply-linked to each other, the audio presentation including the two ormore unreviewed electronic communications of each conversation thread ina chronological-sequential order beginning with an oldest unreviewedelectronic communication and continuing to a most recent unreviewedelectronic communication of the conversation thread before another ofthe plurality of conversation threads that includes an unreviewedelectronic communication that is interspersed in time between the oldestunreviewed electronic communication and the most recent unreviewedelectronic communication of the conversation thread. In this or anyother example disclosed herein, the presentation order is a reversechronological-sequential order based on a most recent unreviewedelectronic communication of each of the plurality of conversationthreads such that: a first conversation thread having a first mostrecent unreviewed electronic communication is presented before a secondconversation thread having a second most recent unreviewed electroniccommunication that is older than the first most recent unreviewedelectronic communication of the plurality of conversation threads. Inthis or any other example disclosed herein, the method furthercomprises: receiving a second instruction to advance the audiopresentation of the plurality of conversation threads; and responsive tothe second instruction, advancing the audio presentation of theplurality of conversation threads from a current conversation thread toa subsequent conversation thread of the presentation order. In this orany other example disclosed herein, the method further comprisesreceiving a second instruction to perform an action with respect to aconversation thread of the plurality of conversation threads; andresponsive to the second instruction, applying the action to eachelectronic conversation of the conversation thread. In this or any otherexample disclosed herein, the audio presentation includes, for eachunreviewed electronic communication, at least a portion of text contentof a message of the unreviewed electronic communication presented as anaudible output. In this or any other example disclosed herein, the audiopresentation further includes: for each conversation thread of theplurality of conversation threads, a thread summary of the conversationthread presented as an audible output before the text content of theconversation thread. In this or any other example disclosed herein, thethread summary identifies a quantity of unreviewed electroniccommunications of the conversation thread. In this or any other exampledisclosed herein, the thread summary identifies an estimated time topresent the conversation thread. In this or any other example disclosedherein, the thread summary identifies a quantity of recipients of theunreviewed electronic communications of the conversation thread. In thisor any other example disclosed herein, the thread summary identifies asubject of the conversation thread.

According to another example of the present disclosure, a computingsystem comprises: an audio output interface to output audio via one ormore audio speakers; a logic subsystem; and a storage subsystem havinginstructions stored thereon executable by the logic subsystem to:receive an instruction to initiate audio presentation of electroniccommunications for a recipient; and responsive to the instruction,output, via the audio interface, an audio presentation of a plurality ofconversation threads according to a presentation order, wherein eachconversation thread includes two or more unreviewed electroniccommunications for the recipient that are reply-linked to each other,the audio presentation including the two or more unreviewed electroniccommunications of each conversation thread in a chronological-sequentialorder beginning with an oldest unreviewed electronic communication andcontinuing to a most recent unreviewed electronic communication of theconversation thread before another of the plurality of conversationthreads that includes an unreviewed electronic communication that isinterspersed in time between the oldest unreviewed electroniccommunication and the most recent unreviewed electronic communication ofthe conversation thread. In this or any other example disclosed herein,the presentation order is a reverse chronological-sequential order basedon a most recent unreviewed electronic communication of each of theplurality of conversation threads such that: a first conversation threadhaving a first most recent unreviewed electronic communication ispresented before a second conversation thread having a second mostrecent unreviewed electronic communication that is older than the firstmost recent unreviewed electronic communication of the plurality ofconversation threads. In this or any other example disclosed herein, theinstructions are further executable by the logic subsystem to: receive asecond instruction to advance the audio presentation of the plurality ofconversation threads; and responsive to the second instruction, advancethe audio presentation of the plurality of conversation threads from acurrent conversation thread to a subsequent conversation thread of thepresentation order. In this or any other example disclosed herein, theinstructions are further executable by the logic subsystem to: receive asecond instruction to perform an action with respect to a conversationthread of the plurality of conversation threads; and responsive to thesecond instruction, apply the action to each electronic conversation ofthe conversation thread. In this or any other example disclosed herein,the audio presentation further includes: for each conversation thread ofthe plurality of conversation threads, a thread summary of theconversation thread presented as an audible output before the textcontent of the conversation thread. In this or any other exampledisclosed herein, the thread summary identifies a quantity of unreviewedelectronic communications of the conversation thread. In this or anyother example disclosed herein, the thread summary identifies anestimated time to present the conversation thread. In this or any otherexample disclosed herein, the thread summary identifies a subject of theconversation thread.

It will be understood that the configurations and/or approachesdescribed herein are exemplary in nature, and that these specificembodiments or examples are not to be considered in a limiting sense,because numerous variations are possible. The specific routines ormethods described herein may represent one or more of any number ofprocessing strategies. As such, various acts illustrated and/ordescribed may be performed in the sequence illustrated and/or described,in other sequences, in parallel, or omitted. Likewise, the order of theabove-described processes may be changed.

The subject matter of the present disclosure includes all novel andnon-obvious combinations and sub-combinations of the various processes,systems and configurations, and other features, functions, acts, and/orproperties disclosed herein, as well as any and all equivalents thereof.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method performed by a computing system,the method comprising: receiving a command to initiate audiopresentation of electronic communications for a recipient; responsive tothe command, audibly outputting each unreviewed electronic communicationin a most-recent conversation thread including a most-recent set ofunreviewed, reply-linked electronic communications for the recipient,wherein each unreviewed electronic communication in the most-recentconversation thread is audibly output in a chronological-sequentialorder beginning with an oldest unreviewed electronic communication andcontinuing to a most-recent unreviewed electronic communication; andresponsive to completing audible output of the most-recent unreviewedelectronic communication from a conversation thread, audibly outputtingeach unreviewed electronic communication in a next-most-recentconversation thread including a next-most-recent set of unreviewed,reply-linked electronic communications for the recipient, wherein eachunreviewed electronic communication in the next-most-recent conversationthread is audibly output in a chronological-sequential order beginningwith an oldest unreviewed electronic communication and continuing to amost-recent unreviewed electronic communication; wherein at least oneunreviewed electronic communication from the next-most-recentconversation thread is chronologically intermediate two unreviewedelectronic communications from the most-recent conversation thread, andwherein all of the unreviewed electronic communications from themost-recent conversation thread are audibly output before any of theunreviewed electronic communications from the next-most-recentconversation thread and before the at least one unreviewed electroniccommunication that is chronologically intermediate.
 2. A methodperformed by a computing system, the method comprising: receiving acommand to initiate audio presentation of electronic communications fora recipient; and responsive to the command, outputting an audiopresentation of a plurality of conversation threads according to apresentation order, wherein each conversation thread of the plurality ofconversation threads includes two or more unreviewed electroniccommunications for the recipient that are reply-linked to each other,the audio presentation including the two or more unreviewed electroniccommunications of each conversation thread in a chronological-sequentialorder beginning with an oldest unreviewed electronic communication andcontinuing to a most recent unreviewed electronic communication of theconversation thread before another of the plurality of conversationthreads that includes an unreviewed electronic communication that isinterspersed in time between the oldest unreviewed electroniccommunication and the most recent unreviewed electronic communication ofthe conversation thread; wherein the presentation order is a reversechronological-sequential order based on a most recent unreviewedelectronic communication of each conversation thread of the plurality ofconversation threads such that: a first conversation thread having afirst most recent unreviewed electronic communication is presentedbefore a second conversation thread having a second most recentunreviewed electronic communication that is older than the first mostrecent unreviewed electronic communication of the plurality ofconversation threads.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:receiving a second command to advance the audio presentation of theplurality of conversation threads; and responsive to the second command,advancing the audio presentation of the plurality of conversationthreads from a current conversation thread to a subsequent conversationthread of the presentation order.
 4. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: receiving a second command to perform an action with respectto a conversation thread of the plurality of conversation threads; andresponsive to the second command, applying the action to each electroniccommunication of the conversation thread.
 5. The method of claim 2,wherein the audio presentation includes, for each unreviewed electroniccommunication, at least a portion of text content of a message of theunreviewed electronic communication presented as an audible output. 6.The method of claim 5, wherein the audio presentation further includes:for each conversation thread of the plurality of conversation threads, athread summary of the conversation thread presented as an audible outputbefore the text content of the conversation thread.
 7. The method ofclaim 6, wherein the thread summary identifies a quantity of unreviewedelectronic communications of the conversation thread.
 8. The method ofclaim 6, wherein the thread summary identifies an estimated time topresent the conversation thread.
 9. The method of claim 6, wherein thethread summary identifies a quantity of recipients of the unreviewedelectronic communications of the conversation thread.
 10. The method ofclaim 6, wherein the thread summary identifies a subject of theconversation thread.
 11. A computing system, comprising: an audio outputinterface to output audio via one or more audio speakers; a logicsubsystem; and a storage subsystem having instructions stored thereonexecutable by the logic subsystem to: receive a command to initiateaudio presentation of electronic communications for a recipient; andresponsive to the command, output, via the audio interface, an audiopresentation of a plurality of conversation threads according to apresentation order, wherein each conversation thread of the plurality ofconversation threads includes two or more unreviewed electroniccommunications for the recipient that are reply-linked to each other,the audio presentation including the two or more unreviewed electroniccommunications of each conversation thread in a chronological-sequentialorder beginning with an oldest unreviewed electronic communication andcontinuing to a most recent unreviewed electronic communication of theconversation thread before another of the plurality of conversationthreads that includes an unreviewed electronic communication that isinterspersed in time between the oldest unreviewed electroniccommunication and the most recent unreviewed electronic communication ofthe conversation thread; wherein the presentation order is a reversechronological-sequential order based on a most recent unreviewedelectronic communication of each conversation thread of the plurality ofconversation threads such that: a first conversation thread having afirst most recent unreviewed electronic communication is presentedbefore a second conversation thread having a second most recentunreviewed electronic communication that is older than the first mostrecent unreviewed electronic communication of the plurality ofconversation threads.
 12. The computing system of claim 11, wherein theinstructions are further executable by the logic subsystem to: receive asecond command to advance the audio presentation of the plurality ofconversation threads; and responsive to the second command, advance theaudio presentation of the plurality of conversation threads from acurrent conversation thread to a subsequent conversation thread of thepresentation order.
 13. The computing system of claim 11, wherein theinstructions are further executable by the logic subsystem to: receive asecond command to perform an action with respect to a conversationthread of the plurality of conversation threads; and responsive to thesecond command, apply the action to each electronic communication of theconversation thread.
 14. The computing system of claim 11, wherein theaudio presentation further includes: for each conversation thread of theplurality of conversation threads, a thread summary of the conversationthread presented as an audible output before the text content of theconversation thread.
 15. The computing system of claim 14, wherein thethread summary identifies a quantity of unreviewed electroniccommunications of the conversation thread.
 16. The computing system ofclaim 14, wherein the thread summary identifies an estimated time topresent the conversation thread.
 17. The computing system of claim 14,wherein the thread summary identifies a subject of the conversationthread.